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Its hard to hate on A-Rod when the bat speed is just not there. The O's are feeding him a steady diet of 91-93 mph fastballs on the inner half and he simply can't catch up to them. Maybe he can dead-cat next year after an offseason of work, but right now he's helpless.

Its hard to hate on A-Rod when the bat speed is just not there. The O's are feeding him a steady diet of 91-93 mph fastballs on the inner half and he simply can't catch up to them. Maybe he can dead-cat next year after an offseason of work, but right now he's helpless.

You know the old cliche about the Yankees thinking they can win by just scaring their opponents with the sight of their pinstripes? That's pretty much the same reasoning they're exhibiting by sticking A-Rod's contract in the middle of the lineup. It may be politically necessary, but it doesn't work against good power pitchers.

Its hard to hate on A-Rod when the bat speed is just not there. The O's are feeding him a steady diet of 91-93 mph fastballs on the inner half and he simply can't catch up to them. Maybe he can dead-cat next year after an offseason of work, but right now he's helpless.

Pretty much. A-Rod has a lot of baseball smarts, and it's possible he'll be able to cheat enough to put a good swing on one of those pitches one of these games, but right now he doesn't look like a guy who has the physical capacity to excel at hitting MLB pitching.

That's pretty much the same reasoning they're exhibiting by sticking A-Rod's contract in the middle of the lineup. It may be politically necessary, but it doesn't work against good power pitchers.

What would be a better spot for him? Obviously he is not what he used to be but he is still pretty good. Other than maybe moving Cano ahead of him I don't see an obvious lineup change for the Yanks. I don't think there is a lot to choose from between about 4 guys (A-Rod, Tex, Granderson, Swisher) in this lineup. If I were Girardi I think I'd like Swisher 2nd rather than Ichiro with the lefty on the mound and flip Cano and A-Rod. If Girardi wants Ichiro! 2nd then I think having someone between him and Cano probably makes sense to at least force Showalter's hand with the matchups later in the game and Rodriguez looks like as good a choice as anyone else in the lineup.

“I always think it’s a little bit of a concern that Alex is bragging about something even I could do.”

This is a difficult question to test empirically. That is, if you just stood there, how often would you walk? I give you Al Leiter:

085/142/102 with 290 Ks in 530 AB. He had 48 SH ... not sure if that's good or not. Anyway, there are not many worse hitters than Al Leiter. People often say the problem with somebody like Juan Pierre is that since he has no power, pitchers know they can just pound the zone without fear. Well, there's Al Leiter, one of the least fearful batters imaginable. And ya gotta think I guy who's that bad of a hitter must have gotten fooled more than a few times and hacked at a breaking ball in the dirt. And since sometimes he was up there to bunt, ya gotta figure he made a few bunt attempts at one out of the strike zone.

Anyway, he had 35 BB in 613 PA which is a walk rate of 5.7%. That's about 1 per 17.5 PA.

Better than the Mendoza line, I like to think of this as the Leiter line. Any actual hitter should be able to walk at least this much.

Juan Pierre is not one of them. (OK, he's within rounding of 5.7%) But he's hardly alone.

In the expansion era, there have been 125 players with at least 3000 PA and a lower walk rate. Dawson is in the HoF and Pudge II will join him (barring roid rage) and Cano has a shot. The number of fairly longtime Cubs on this list is depressing: Dawson, Buckner, Bowa, Pierre, Dunston, Beckert, Neifi, Patterson, Glanville (and he doesn't have 3000 PA yet but Castro's walk rate is terrible) .... and apparently God wants me to get back to work because P-I has just crapped out on me.

God's smiling on me again. All three of the Alou brothers are on the list.

The Tigers gave it a good run with two plus half of Infante but they couldn't quite catch the White Sox who had 4 players below the Leiter Line -- Rios, Pierzynski, Viciedo and Ramirez. Despite nearly half the lineup qualifying, they did manage to pull the team rate up to 7.5%.

After reading your post, the first pitcher I thought of was Aaron Harang. He has hit .091/.099/.109 and walked only once every 202 plate appearances. I think that's closer to what Michael Kay's rate would be.

Better than the Mendoza line, I like to think of this as the Leiter line. Any actual hitter should be able to walk at least this much.

Juan Pierre is not one of them. (OK, he's within rounding of 5.7%) But he's hardly alone.

In the expansion era, there have been 125 players with at least 3000 PA and a lower walk rate. Dawson is in the HoF and Pudge II will join him (barring roid rage) and Cano has a shot. The number of fairly longtime Cubs on this list is depressing: Dawson, Buckner, Bowa, Pierre, Dunston, Beckert, Neifi, Patterson, Glanville (and he doesn't have 3000 PA yet but Castro's walk rate is terrible) .... and apparently God wants me to get back to work because P-I has just crapped out on me.

God's smiling on me again. All three of the Alou brothers are on the list.

All of those guys would have walked more often than Leiter if they'd been remotely as bad at making contact as Leiter (of course, if they'd been anywhere near as bad at making contact as Leiter, they wouldn't have gotten close to the big leagues). And Leiter probably would have walked less if he'd been better at making contact.